Hepatitis and jaundice associated with measles in young adults. An analysis of 65 cases.

We analyzed the clinical course of 65 adult patients hospitalized because of measles during the years 1975 and 1981-1982. Liver involvement was found in 80% (52/65) of the patients, five patients had clinical jaundice. The disturbances of liver function tests reached their peak values between days 5 and 10 of the disease. In this study of measles in adulthood we have three observations of unusual interest: (1) hepatitis occurs commonly in the more severely ill patients and it may manifest clinically as jaundice; (2) long-term follow-up (up to seven years) shows a clear tendency to complete resolution of the liver damage; (3) there is a clear correlation between the severity of hepatic involvement and the occurrence of secondary bacterial infections.